I haven't read a book before that so thoroughly challenged conventional wisdom and yet still seemed like common sense. SCounterintuitive and brilliant

I haven't read a book before that so thoroughly challenged conventional wisdom and yet still seemed like common sense. Such is the genuine thoughtfulness and humility of Peter Thiel's Zero to One. Tangling with some of the most talked-about phenomena of our time - business creation and success, political governance, personal ethics - Thiel lends an important perspective that feels new and old at once. If it's important to you to fit ideas into easy ideological boxes, don't read this book....more

Easily my least favorite Rapp book so far. The plot conceit - what happens if a presidential campaign creates a tragedy to help it win the race?- is cEasily my least favorite Rapp book so far. The plot conceit - what happens if a presidential campaign creates a tragedy to help it win the race?- is classic Flynn and an opportunity for a great story. Unfortunately, the novel fails to live up to the promise. The cast of characters is unusually flat, and you are much more aware than usual that Flynn's world is incredibly small for such a large stage. Even Rapp disappoints in his first book after the death of his wife - more one dimensional, and attempts by ancillary characters to draw out psychological conflict are shut down by character and author alike. Flynn attempts to correct for these flaws by shortening the book and lengthening the action scenes with extreme detail, and it doesn't work. Hope the next one is back to the usual Flynn standards. ...more